A Weasley Christmas
by Joey Potter
Summary: What happened at Christmas when Ginny was five years old. Inspired from "Step by Step" and - if I may say so myself - a very cute Christmas story.


Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, blah blah blah  
  
A/N: From me to you. Hope you'll enjoy it. Merry Christmas to all of you.  
  
- Joey Potter  
  
A WEASLEY CHRISTMAS  
  
"Come on, Ron! We're going to see something really exiting!" said Mrs Weasley happily to her six-year-old son, who had stopped to look at the giant Christmas tree set up in the middle of Diagon Alley. She took his hand and led him into Gextus' Toy Store, where a man in red clothes and with a long beard sat in a big armchair.  
  
"Father Christmas!" Ron exclaimed and looked up at his mum.  
  
"Can I go talk to him, Mummy? Please?"  
  
"Of course you can, Ronnie," answered his mum, and with a great smile, Ron went up to Father Christmas and sat on his knee.  
  
Molly turned to look after her eight-year-old twin boys. For once, they weren't up to something. Right now, they stood completely still, looking at a set of dress-up Quidditch robes with the Falmouth Falcons' logo on front. Ginny, their five-year old sister, had disappeared into the dolls' department, where she had fallen in love with a blond doll in a sky-blue dress with small white dogs on it, and with matching shoes, and - to complete the perfectness - could say 'Mommy'!  
  
"Mum - look at that one," Ginny said, breathless. "Isn't she beautiful?"  
  
Her mum looked at the doll. It was indeed beautiful, but way to expensive.  
  
"Do you think I can get her for Christmas?" asked Ginny expectant.  
  
"Oh, I don't know, dear. However, I know what you could do! Go and tell Father Christmas - he's right over there, talking to Ronnie!"  
  
The little girl turned and eyed Father Christmas, then ran off to tell him what she wished for Christmas. Ron had finished telling about his wishes, and Ginny was placed on Father Christmas's lap.  
  
"Hello, little girl. What's your name?" asked Father Christmas and smiled at Ginny.  
  
"Ginny. I'm five years old. It was my brother you just talked to."  
  
"Oh, yes, you have the same hair! It's very beautiful - I love red, as you can see on my clothes."  
  
And Ginny grinned. How nice he was.  
  
"Do you want to know what I wish for Christmas?" she asked. Father Christmas nodded. "Okay, I want-" Ginny was cut off by the twins, who came running through the store and crashed into Father Christmas's armchair. It turned over, and all four of them fell to the floor.  
  
"Fred! George!" yelled Ginny angrily at her brothers. "Now you won't get any presents for Christmas! I'm sure Father Christmas is really mad at both of you!"  
  
"Come down, Gin! He's not the real Father Christmas!" said Fred with a smirk.  
  
"Yeah, look," said George and grabbed hold of Father Christmas's beard - and ripped it off! They were right. He wasn't the real Father Christmas! He was a fake!  
  
Ginny just stood there. She couldn't believe it. Her eyes filled with tears. She didn't see her mum come running over with Ron by her hand, scolding the twins and make them apologise to the poor man. She didn't see as her mum lifted her up and carried her out of the store, still scolding the twins. Father Christmas wasn't real.  
  
When they were home, she still wasn't herself yet. The twins had tried to cheer her up all the way home (or since their mum had stopped scolding them), but she refused to even talk to them.  
  
"Hi Mum! What'd you buy for me?" Charlie asked as soon as they were inside. He was seventeen, and on his last year at Hogwarts, but this year, he'd come home for Christmas, and so had Bill, even though he was currently working for the Gringotts' Bank in Egypt. He'd got the job one and a half years ago when he graduated from Hogwarts, but he, too, had decided to come home for Christmas, so they could be 'one big, happy family' again.  
  
"Nothing. I decided you'd been too bad this year to get a Christmas present," answered Mrs Weasley jokingly. Then she became serious. "We had a little.... episode in the toy store. The twins ripped Father Christmas's beard off and Ginny saw it, so she is a bit upset," she told him.  
  
"The twins did what? How could they do such a thing?" Charlie said, loudly enough to call Bill and Percy out from the living room, where they just had finished a Chess game.  
  
"What have they done now?" Bill asked, a small grin on his face. He found the twins' jokes pretty amusing - come to think of it, so did Charlie. He would even help them now and then, but when it was something about Ginny..... She was the apple of his eye out of all his siblings, and sometimes he could get a little overprotective. It was common knowledge at Hogwarts, that when Ginny was three years old, one of the Slytherins had asked Charlie if Ginny was as stupid as Charlie himself was. It wasn't until Charlie had beaten him up that he realised what the Slytherin actually had said.  
  
Bill and Percy got the story from Mrs Weasley.  
  
"Oh," said Bill. "Oh."  
  
"Don't you think she'll get over it?" Percy asked.  
  
Before Mrs Weasley got a chance to answer, Ginny walked through the kitchen with a box in her hands.  
  
"Ginny? Where are you going with all your Christmas decorations?" Charlie asked.  
  
"I'm throwing them out! If Father Christmas is a fake, then the whole Christmas thing is fake, and I don't want to celebrate it!" she said.  
  
"But Ginny....." Bill tried, but Ginny pushed him away.  
  
"Leave me alone! I hate Christmas!" she shouted, left her box on the floor and ran up the stairs to her and Ron's room.  
  
"What're we gonna do?" Charlie asked, looking worried.  
  
"I don't know. No five-year-old should hate Christmas," Percy said.  
  
Now Ron came down the stairs.  
  
"Ginny told me the whole story," he said. "I'm on her site! We don't want any Christmas this year," he said, then turned around and ran up the stairs again.  
  
"Great. Now Ron hates Christmas too," said Bill despairing.  
  
"We gotta make them believe again," Charlie said.  
  
"Yes, but how?" asked Mrs Weasley.  
  
"I dunno! Any ideas, Billy?" Charlie looked at his older brother, who shook his head.  
  
Later that evening, Mr Weasley came home from work, and he got the story.  
  
"One of us could dress up like Father Christmas and....."  
  
"And then they'll recognise us and not even hate Christmas, but us too," said Bill. "They're not stupid, you know."  
  
The days passed by, without Ron and Ginny getting any happier. The twins weren't as loud and noisy as they used to - probably because they had been the reason to all this.  
  
Then, Christmas night, something happened.  
  
Ginny woke up. She had a particular feeling, which she couldn't specify, so she did the only thing there was to do - she woke Ron up.  
  
"Ron! Ron!" she hissed. Her brother opened one sleepy eye.  
  
"Ginny? Go back to sleep, it's not morning yet," Ron said sleepily and turned his back to her. Ginny stood and looked at him for a minute, before she went out of the room.  
  
Nothing was wrong downstairs in the kitchen, so she went into the living room. And there....  
  
The Christmas tree in the middle of the room lightened up the fireplace where seven stockings hang, each with a name of one of the Weasley children. Wait a minute... the Christmas tree was lit? Why would it be that in the middle of the night? Then someone stepped out from the place between the tree and the fireplace. Someone in red clothes with white fur and large pockets. Someone with a long, white beard. Someone with a big sack over his shoulder. Ginny sighed. Did they really think she was that stupid?  
  
"Okay, who are you?" she asked. The man looked at her and smiled.  
  
"Don't you know that, Ginny?" he asked.  
  
"No. I know you're not the real Father Christmas, because he's not real! So, are you Daddy or Bill or Charlie?"  
  
"Ginny, if I were your dad or your brother, how would I then know about. this?" He pulled a gift out of his sack and gave it to her. She took it and opened it. Her eyes widened.  
  
"It's.... it's...."  
  
"Yes, Ginny. It's the doll," said the man with a smile. And it was. It was the doll in the blue dress, with the matching shoes and the long eyelashes. The one that could say 'Mommy'. Ginny looked up at him and into his eyes.  
  
"You're the real Father Christmas!" she exclaimed. He didn't answer. He just smiled and nodded.  
  
"Ron! Charlie! Bill! Fred! George! Mum! Dad! Percy! Come and look! Hurry!" she yelled up the stairs. A couple of seconds later, her whole family came thundering down the stairs.  
  
"What is it, sweetheart? Are you all right?" asked her mother.  
  
"Yes, yes I am, but look, it's....." Ginny trailed off. She had turned around, only to find no one behind her.  
  
"But...... but he was here..... right here....." she said.  
  
"Who was here, sweetheart?"  
  
"Father Christmas! Right here in the living room!"  
  
"What?" said Bill. "Are you sure?"  
  
"Yes! He was the real Father Christmas! He gave me this!" she showed the doll to her family.  
  
"But.... it can't be the real Father Christmas....." Percy said.  
  
"Are you sure?" Charlie asked. He stood by the window, looking outside. "Come here and look."  
  
The Weasley family moved over to look out the window. Charlie lifted Ginny up in his arms. She looked up in the sky, and saw..... no, it couldn't be! A sleigh, pulled by eight reindeers. And in the sleigh was a man, but not just any man.....  
  
"It's Father Christmas!" Ron exclaimed.  
  
"No, it can't be true!" Percy rubbed his eyes and looked once more. He still saw it. Bill was lost for words. He just glared, mouth open, at the sight outside the window.  
  
But Ginny grinned at Charlie and waved at the sleigh. Her happiness caught on to the rest of the family, and soon they all waved - even Percy.  
  
"Shh, listen," Charlie said, and they heard it. Jingle bells, and a voice yelling, form outside:  
  
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!" 


End file.
